According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) physical child abuse occurs when a parent or caregiver commits an intentional act that results in physical injury to a child or adolescent, such as red marks, cuts, welts, bruises, muscle sprains, or broken bones. Physical abuse can occur when physical punishment goes too far or a parent acts out in anger. Even corporal punishment that do not result in physical injury are considered physical abuse and are outlawed in some states. Children of all ages, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds are at risk for physical abuse. Children ages 4–7 and 12–15 are at the greatest risk of being physically abused. Very young children are most susceptible to receiving serious injuries because they are more vulnerable and depend on others to care for them (NCTSN, 2009). An estimated 1 in 4 children living in the United States experience some form of maltreatment. In 2014, more than 6.6 million children and their families were reported to Child Protective Services for allegations of child maltreatment (Ho, Gross, & Bettencourt, 2017). In most states, the harm must have been inflicted by non-accidental means. This includes intentional acts, actions that were careless (such as, allowing a known sexual offender or known abuser to be with a child alone), and acts of negligence (such as, leaving a child under a certain age at home alone). Some of the examples listed as child abuse may not be viewed as abuse to certain
In the United States today studies show that “1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men are sexually abused before the age of 18” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006). Therefore that would mean 42 million adults are survivors of child abuse right here in the United States. Among these children there are 73% of children who do not tell anyone for a year, and many who never tell anyone (The Children’s Assessment Center). If we do not intervene many would say 500,000 babies will be born and sexually abused by the age of 18. It is important is it to be educated in the signs and symptoms of adult and child sexual abuse and getting involved in our own communities to stop this vicious cycle. You may or may not be a social worker or therapist but everyone can help an adult or child just by caring enough to stop and recognize the clues (The Children’s Assessment Center).
The studies on children with risk behaviors were done because the increasing number of children being place in foster care due to maltreatment. This is how the study was done to get a up to date examined on youth that had been though protective services and vulnerability factors in foster care. Some individual predicted placing youth in the foster care system would cause an impact in the maltreatment and physical abuse. Maltreatment and physically abuse don’t stop due a child being place in foster care out-of-home care; children that has been in any type of Truman will need some kind of counsel services.
The safety and security of many children across the world are in danger due to physical abuse. Child abuse has been linked to an assortment of changes in the brain which result in psychological, behavioral, and academic problems. While it is unclear whether the population that had been maltreated as children is accurate, physical maltreatment in the first 5 years of life places a child at risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems during adolescence. The following three literature reviews attempts to prove and support the premise.
The United States has been fighting the war against child abuse since the first case of child abuse in 1874 that included a child being beaten and chained against her will (Meadows, 2014). Many people hear the words child abuse and think of physical abuse. While, many people are correct in thinking of physical abuse, an “Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)” study done by the CDC shows that although physical abuse is the leading form of child abuse, emotional or psychological abuse is the second leading form of child abuse (2014). Although one would think sexual abuse along with physical abuse would be the prominent form of abuse, this is not the case. One of the major reasons emotional neglect is more prominent than sexual abuse is due to the fact that emotional abuse is not being overlooked as often as it used to. In fact, it is now being seen as the gateway to physical and sexual abuse (Garbarino, Guttman, & Seeley, 1988). The amounts of consequences that come from being abused as a child are countless as well as life changing, some of these life-changing effects were identified by the CDC as drug abuse, sexual transmitted diseases, suicidal thoughts, and difficulty learning (2014).
It 's difficult to comprehend that an adult, often a parent or caregiver, would intentionally hurt an infant or child. Yet nearly a million children are abused in the United States. Unfortunately that excludes children who 's incidents of child abuse are unreported and undetected. Child abuse can be defined differently from state to state, but commonly presents in the form of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment. The focus of this review is physical abuse, which is defined as non-accidental physical injury, from bruising to fractures to the most serious cases of abuse ending in death (Sink, Hyman, Matheny, Georgopoulos & Kleinman, 2010).
A term that is quite often used in today’s society is family violence, more specifically child abuse and spousal abuse. A term that is not heard often is elder abuse, which is unfortunate due to the fact that it is a fairly common occurrence. It was estimated that in 2009, one in ten elderly Americans were victims of elder abuse within the previous year (Acierno, 2010). Even though elder abuse is prevalent here in America, it is seldom that this phenomenon is actually discussed.
There are many things in our society today that unfortunately go overlooked. One such thing that is overlooked is the number of children who are being abused. Unfortunately these children are going through life not knowing whether or not their parents will loose their temper and perhaps kill them. There are many types of child abuse, such as physical, sexual, and emotional. Physical abuse is physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals,
According to dictionary.com, child abuse is the “mistreatment of a child by a parent or guardian, including neglect, beating, and sexual molestation.” About five children die every day from child abuse and many children who are abused start experiencing it at eighteen months or younger. While abuse can start at any age, more than 25% are under the age of three and over 45% are under the age of five. The younger a child is, the more vulnerable they are. If signs of abuse are discovered at a young age, it is possible to recover from them completely through therapy and patience.
Physical child abuse has grown very vividly within the recent years. When people think physical abuse, majority picture the beating of a child; however, physical abuse not only consist of kicking, biting, choking, throwing, pushing, burning, but anything that causes injuries to a child. On the daily new we hear about a child that has been neglected or abused by a caregiver. According to the Child Help National Child Abuse, one-third of all parents who were abused as a child, typically become abusers of their own children. Physical abuse causes a child to have psychological effects throughout their life.
This article connects physical child abuse with violent behavior. Children are sponges therefore, they soak up everything that they come into contact with. When a child is a victim to child abuse they have the tendency to become violent and get involve with illegal activity. “Abused children will learn that the world is a hostile place (e.g., Dodge, Bates, and Pettit 1990) and will act accordingly.” (Savage, Palmer, Martin 2014) Therefore abused children will take a physical approach towards problems that they engage their selves in, which leads to delinquency. When a child is suffering from child abuse they are less likely to have a bond with their parents. This can cause children disobeying authority as well as breaking laws. Also, children
Just the thought of physical abuse is something that makes chills goes down your spine. Physical abuse is one of the painful actions that is in the U.S is happening to millions of families worldwide. It is mostly due to the fact that the male of the house is coming home intoxicated with the intentions of hurting his spouse. 1 in 3 women are victims of physical abuse in their household. This brutal action has lead many women to their breaking point and even death. Men/women who commits domestic violence does so with the intent to have control of both the other person and the relationship.
With child abuse and neglect being so prevalent globally, it is important to recognize why these types of maltreatment occur and is a relevant topic for all to explore. Many are interested in how child abuse and neglect affect the individuals who are victims as well as the use and efficacy of treatment procedures. Child abuse has serious physical and psycho-social consequences which adversely affect the health and overall well-being of a child. There are long-term consequences of experiencing these forms of maltreatment. Awareness and understanding needs to be brought to this devastatingly common crisis and the advancement of child abuse and neglect prevention needs to be encouraged.
Child abuse consists of any act or failure to act that endangers a child’s physical or emotional health and development. A person caring for a child is abusive if he or she fails to nurture the child, physically injures the child, or relates sexually to the child (Robins). Child abuse is broken down into four major categories: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Aside from the abuse itself, the cost of the tragic events costs the United States billions of dollars each year. Every day, approximately 4 children in the United States die resulting from child abuse and the majority are under 5-years-old (Fromm). There are many organizations that promote preventative measures in reducing child abuse. If nothing is done,
The issue of child abuse and neglect is serious, controversial, and is escalating in today’s society. Many people are not aware, but child abuse is rampant in our society. Many child abuse and neglect cases go unreported because a person may not know the signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect or perhaps the person or person may feel that this is an private issue and needs to be handle with in the home and no outsiders should be involved. Without the proper awareness of child abuse and neglect and the involvement of everyone this issue will continue to raise our eyebrows.
There are many forms of child abuse. Not only can children be physically abused, but they are also in danger of experiencing sexual abuse. In the more recent years, child sexual abuse has come to the attention of a larger part of society. As such, it is becoming more openly discussed. Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, and the stories that have begun to circulate around the world work to illustrate just how serious the problem is. Despite what society is lead to believe, the sexual abuse of a child is the least common out of all forms of child abuse. Out of the different types of child abuse, neglect is the most common, followed by physical abuse, and then sexual abuse comes at the bottom. Still, of all the cases of child abuse reported to and substantiated by authorities, approximately 15% of them concerned sexual abuse. ). It is possible that there are more cases of child sexual abuse, however, and they simply are not being reported. Due to the number of undisclosed cases of child abuse, researchers have conducted various prevalence studies over the years to determine the true number of sexual abuse of children. These studies have determined that around 20% of women and 5-10% of men in America in were sexually abused as children. A great deal of controversy surrounds the number of male victims of child sexual abuse, due to a lack of quality studies. The problem with prevalence studies is that they don 't all share the same definition of abuse, nor do they share